After 20 weeks of hands-on work, real customer conversations, and relentless iteration, these teams arrived not with polished decks alone, but with pilots launched, MVPs tested, and in several cases, paying customers already on board.
What made this cohort stand out is that half of the startups reached these milestones without relying on external investment. By bootstrapping their way to early validation, they demonstrated something worth celebrating: that clarity of purpose, deep customer understanding, and disciplined execution can take you further than a funding round.
A Panel of Practitioners
Jury members were selected for the depth and range of their experience across entrepreneurship, investing, urban development, and sustainability. Rather than simply scoring pitches, they pushed teams hard, surfacing blind spots, challenging assumptions, and offering the kind of direct feedback that is genuinely useful. Each startup was assessed on how clearly they understood their own business, the strength of their proposed solution, and how convincingly they could communicate both.
The panel comprised Jorn Eiting van Liempt (Sr Business Developer, ROM InWest), Nhi C. (Founder, Nū Atlas and ClimateHack Amsterdam Ambassador), Joey Bayer (Head of International Community, Epicenter), Maike Ehlert (Project Leader Innovation, Gemeente Amsterdam), Alejandro Ortega (Program Manager, StartLife and TEDxAmsterdam Impact Program), and Quintus Kropholler (Founder and Managing Director, Radical Value Agency).
The Winners
First Place: Springform
The construction sector accounts for roughly 37% of global CO₂ emissions, and the materials problem sits at the heart of that. Springform is tackling it head-on with automated manufacturing systems for hempcrete facade elements, making CO₂-negative, biobased building materials viable at an industrial scale. Their system plugs directly into existing prefab workflows, which means low-carbon construction doesn’t require reinventing how things are built.
Second Place: The Swap Club
Around 268,000 clothing items are thrown away every day in the Netherlands alone. The Swap Club is building a practical alternative: a hybrid model combining in-person swap events with a digital points-based platform that makes circular exchange genuinely appealing rather than just virtuous. They’re already growing a community of urban residents, businesses, and sustainability-minded partners around the idea.
Third Place: Citypump-E
Construction sites are noisy, polluting, and when it comes to water management, still almost entirely diesel-powered. Citypump-E offers a modular electric pumping system designed specifically for urban environments, where emissions standards are tightening, and space is tight. It’s a focused solution to a problem that often flies under the radar.
Bonus Prize, awarded by Epicenter: Tiger Parts
The bonus prize includes three months of flex workspace at the new Epicenter Amsterdam.
When industrial machinery breaks down, and the spare parts are no longer available, most companies have no choice but to replace the entire system. Tiger Parts exists to change that, offering on-demand reproduction of discontinued components through a digital manufacturing platform. It’s a circular economy play that targets the unglamorous but very real problem of industrial waste through obsolescence.
About the AMS Startup Booster
The AMS Startup Booster is a 20-week, hands-on incubation program designed to support early-stage teams developing solutions to pressing urban challenges. Emphasizing learning by doing, teams actively engage with users, test their solutions in real-world contexts, and build strategic connections within the broader innovation ecosystem to accelerate their path to scale and impact.
